Thursday, 28 July 2011

It's been rumbling on for months... letters have been written, petitions signed, rallies held and motions tabled. Despite all our protestations and the unanimous backing by all the parties at the London Assembly of a motion calling for an urgent review of the plans for Blackfriars, Transport for London intend to go ahead with their treacherous and terrifying junction plans anyway this Friday night.

The first of many protests begins tomorrow. Remember that even TfL’s car-centric rationale is risibly threadbare. If you feel like attaching a slogan to your bike how about TfL will kill again. There’s more from Cyclists in the Cityhere and some important reflections on protest from The Bike Show.

Blackfriars Bridge, incidentally, is named after the adjacent site of the old Dominican priory:

But a once all-powerful institution did not survive the tide of history. Today, all that’s left of Blackfriars Priory is this solitary, insignificant scrap of stonework. Perhaps there’s a lesson here for Transport for London…